INDIAN NATIONAL SCIENCE ACADEMY INSA PLATINUM JUBILEE By: Arvind Gupta Pix: Karen Haydock

His mathematical talent began manifesting itself when he was about ten. He
could learn the subject effortlessly by himself and even clear the doubts of
students much senior to him. In high school, he studied G. S. Carrs A Synopsis
of Elementary Results in Pure Mathematics. This book later became famous in

Srinivasa the mathematical world because it influenced Ramanujans unique style of

jotting down his results, without explaining his methods. He later attended
college hoping to pass the exam required to enter the University of Madras.
Ramanujan But he was so absorbed in mathematics that he neglected other subjects and
failed the exam. He never earned a bachelors degree.
(1887 - 1920) The next few years were really miserable for Ramanujan. He tried his hand at
giving private tuitions. But he did not even succeed in this. While teaching
mathematics he would jump several steps and lapse into higher reaches of the
subject. The students found him utterly incomprehensible, though they
respected him for his obvious genius. This phenomenon plagued Ramanujan
Our country has produced only one mathematician of the first rank all his life. His originality was beyond the pale of most mathematicians. They
after Bhaskaracharya eight hundred years ago. This was Ramanujan always wondered whether he was a genius or just a clever poser!
and he was unable to pass even the first year of college. India gave him The famous Notebooks of Ramanujan had their origin in this period. He had a
birth, starvation, tuberculosis, and a premature death. It is to the
particular fascination for numbers. Every rational number was his friend. He
everlasting credit of the English mathematician Hardy that he recognized
the merit of one who was considered half made by the Indians, had him did not realise the need for rigorous proof, which was the forte of Western
brought in England, trained him, and brought out his splendid ability. mathematics. His genius was an intuitive genius. He would arrive
D. D. Kosambi at the final solution with a prodigious mental leap
but would not care to set down the steps
The life story of this Indian genius, who won to the solution. Two generations
worldwide fame in mathematics despite his poor of mathematicians have pored
family background and lack of formal education, over his note books, trying to prove
is legendary among professional mathematicians. his formulations. Even now they
have not been fully worked out.
Ramanujan was born on 22 December 1887 in
Erode, about 400 km from Madras. His father Ramanujan was by now over twenty,
Srinivasan was a low-paid clerk in a sari shop. The and in the eyes of his elders shiftless
family was poor. Even the necessities of and lost in a world of his own. His
everyday life were hard to come by. His mother resolved to infuse
mother, Komalathammal was strong responsibility into him by the classic
willed and determined to see her son Indian method - she decided to get him
come up in life. From her Ramanujan married! Since implicit obedience to elders
imbibed the deep spirituality that was then the rule, Ramanujan married
characterised his adult life. He was Janaki Ammal, eleven year his junior on 14
raised in nearby Kumbhakonam, July 1909. This forced him to seek a job to
which was his mothers native place. support his family. In 1912, he found a clerks

26 27
 INDIAN NATIONAL SCIENCE ACADEMY INSA PLATINUM JUBILEE By: Arvind Gupta Pix: Karen Haydock
position in the accounts flourished and he published many exciting new
section of the Madras Port results on topics such as the number theory, infinite
Trust. Its chief accountant series and indefinite integrals. One of the most
Narayana Rau, was a spectacular results in mathematics is the Hardy-
mathematician. Both he Ramanujan formula derived in 1917 for the
and Sir Francis Spring, the number of partitions of an integer. A striking
chairman of the Port Trust, characteristic of Ramanujans work is the
took a keen interest in mysterious mix of symbols and formulas. He
Ramanujans mathematical believed that the Goddess Namagiri appeared in
talents. his dreams to guide and inspire his work.
The famous Landau Ramanujan constant,
Ramanujan sent his work K = 0.7642236535892206629906987... Ramanujan was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree by Cambridge in 1916
to mathematicians in The equation, as shown here, is very, very slow to approach K! and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1919. Being a strict
England for evaluation. vegetarian he would cook his own food. Perhaps due to the intense pressure
But given his lack of formal education, he was not taken seriously and his of work and lack of a proper diet, he contracted tuberculosis in England and
letters went largely ignored. In 1913, however, Ramanujan sent an intriguing was admitted to a nursing home. Hardy visited him there and remarked, I
letter to G.H. Hardy, an eminent mathematics professor at Trinity College, thought the number of my Taxicab was 1729, it seemed to me a rather dull number.
Cambridge. In this letter, he listed about 120 mathematical theorems without Ramanujan replied: No Hardy! It is a very interesting number. It is the smallest
showing the details of the proofs. number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways. Nowadays, this is
I had never seen anything like them referred to as The Taxicab Problem and integer solutions to the equation
before, Hardy wrote later. A single i3 + j3 = k3 + l3
look at them was enough to show that
they could be written by a mathematician are called Ramanujan numbers. Many
of the highest class. They must be true eminent mathematicians have devoted
because, if they were not true, no one their lives trying to decipher
would have the imagination to invent Ramanujans work from his
them. Hardy was deeply impressed notebooks.
and was instrumental in bringing Ramanujan returned to India in 1919
Ramanujan to Cambridge for and died in Kumbhakonam the next
further study. year. He was richly lauded for his
Initially Ramanujans deeply achievements. In 1962, the Indian
religious family objected to his Government issued a postage stamp
crossing the seven seas and going commemorating his 75th birth anniversary.
abroad. According to some, his
mother had a dream in which the A prize for young mathematicians from developing countries
Goddess Namagiri commanded has been created in the name of Ramanujan by the
her not to stand in the way of her International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), in
sons goals. Thereafter, the family cooperation with the International Mathematical Union, who
relented and Ramanujan arrived at nominates members of the prize committee.
Cambridge in 1914. His research
28 29